Review: Bianca Del Rio’s Not Today, Satan!

Newcastle City Hall, Wednesday 15th February, 2017.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so constantly at a show as I did last night when seeing Not Today Satan. With a Bianca Del Rio show, it’s a skilful display of killer delivery, arresting aesthetic and more feigned, biting bitterness than a narcissist in therapy…

The show is pretty relentless. It’s the kind of show which makes you chuckle away to yourself the following day, paying absolutely no mind to the people staring at you like you’ve just escaped Bedlam. Bianca Del Rio (Roy Haylock) is supremely sharp, superbly polished both in appearance and performance and very, very gifted in the art of giving face to punctuate the punchline. Rarely are extended periods of silence so utterly hilarious as the pauses for effect from Del Rio as the ‘scene is set’ for the tales of various calamities. Never before have I seen the delivery of a simple word like ‘caravan’ pull such a hailstorm of laughter from an audience – paired with the shrieks of disgust and unbridled judgement, Del Rio made a real-time laugh track of the audience.

Not Today Satan covers a vast array of topics. Highlights for me are the anecdotes from life as a drunken Drag ‘Diva’ in an airport and an eventful radio interview in Australia, as well as the gut-crunchingly funny commentary on favourite trash TV. The re-enactments of cliches from “Hoarders” and the like are like a throwback to Del Rio’s Screen Star episode on Drag Race for me. Add to this the various recurring exclamations of ‘…and then she died’ and ‘hoooooooow?!’ and you’ve got yourself a show which just builds and builds.

One of the best things about Del Rio’s comedy is how bitingly perceptive it is. It’s brilliantly entertaining to hear the no-holds-barred views of someone fearless enough to say everything they think, especially if the content is the cynical, exasperated war cry of a mature, intelligent mind driven to sass-overdrive by the insufferable. I won’t deny that some of the content is a little on the uncomfortable side for me, but I realise of course that you have to roll with the punches at a comedy gig. If you see an infamously merciless performer like Del Rio, you’d better be prepared to pick your jaw up off the floor in time for the material which really gets you cackling. It’s part of the brand of humour and that’s why Del Rio can get away with anything – the audience will never fall out of love with the knuckle-ride of a Del Rio rant.

Not Today Satan is an evening of genuine hilarity in a world of fake LOLs and ‘I’m Screaming’s. If you’re not ‘faint hearted’ and fancy a brief escape to a world of uncensored, fearless and outrageous comedy, get yourself to a Bianca Del Rio show.